Clustering of elastic energy due to electrohydrodynamics instabilities in nematic liquid crystals

The clustering of elastic-energy density has been investigated when electro hydrodynamic instabilities occur in a nematic liquid crystal, under the action of an external electric field. Statistical properties of clustering have been investigated for different applied voltages and, for the first time, at different depths inside the sample using a confocal fluorescence microscopy technique. The spatial inhomogeneities of elastic-energy density have been characterized through the multifractal evolving set of a coarse-graining energy density in the position space. We found that the probability density of energy fluctuations at small scales strongly deviates from homogeneity, mainly at high applied voltages and far from the surface of the sample, where small-scale structures tend to concentrate due to the lower influence of the anchoring energy, at boundary plates.